


Valonqar

by dabs_into_oblivion



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Non-Canonical Character Death, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 12:30:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18739063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dabs_into_oblivion/pseuds/dabs_into_oblivion
Summary: The prophecy wasn't specific to her own brother, Cersei realizes as she stares at the flickering candles.





	Valonqar

**Author's Note:**

> there are definitely all of the spoilers in here, up to and including 8x04

Arya wears someone else's face to enter the Red Keep, but she takes it off once she's outside the queen's chambers. The battle rages outside; she knows Daenerys will fall soon, if she hasn't already. She knocks.

"Come." The queen is expecting a servant to dress her for her triumph. She is alone. Arya opens the door and slips through.

Cersei sets her goblet down. "I think I shall wear this crown today -- " She's still speaking as she turns, registers Arya's face, and smirks. "Well. If it isn't one of the Stark bitches. Let me guess, you came with the Dragon Queen?"

Arya shakes her head.

Even in her supposed victory, Cersei is too clever to take anything at face value. "Do you think you're here to kill me, child?"

Arya lifts the goblet, drains it. "No."

Cersei smiles as she would at a dog. "Then why are you here?"

Arya shrugs. "Figured I'd pick the winning side for once."

The queen nods, shrugs her wrap off. A mistake. "Dress me, then." Her next mistake. Arya's hands bring the gown up over her shoulders, settle it into place, and then they're on her throat, squeezing the life out of her, and Cersei can barely wheeze, let alone call for help.

"Winter is here for House Lannister," whispers Arya.

The prophecy wasn't specific to her own brother, Cersei realizes as she stares at the flickering candles. Then, "Kill me if you must, but surely not the child I bear?"

Arya tilts her head to one side, her eyes softening for just a moment, but she doesn't loosen her grip. "Your brother's? Or Euron Greyjoy's? Either way, no great loss."

But Cersei has seen her chance and she uses it. "You're a mother too, you understand. Lock me up, I'll go willingly, I'll do anything for my child."

"The sad part is, I almost believe you," Arya replies.

Later, when Jon sits on the throne and the dead are being buried, she sits in Cersei's chamber and thinks. She holds a hand over her stomach and remembers her inability to keep food down for the past few days. She pictures Gendry's face as he emptied himself in her before the battle at Winterfell. And she cries, for the first time in many years.


End file.
